KONSTANTIN ACHKOV, BULGARIA

Born in 1973 in Sofia, Bulgaria, Konstantin Achkov is a sculptor and designer who brings together artistic imagination and engineering precision. He graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia in 2002 with a master’s degree in Sculpture. His curiosity about design began during his student years, when he experimented with creating lamps for restaurants and cafés. For Achkov, the transition from sculpture to furniture design felt natural – simply another way to explore form, structure, and function.

He became a pioneer in Bulgaria with his self-locking furniture puzzles, made from a single sheet of material and assembled without screws, nails, or glue. His fascination with structural challenges also led him to explore tensegrity – seemingly gravity-defying constructions held together by tension rather than direct contact between solid elements.

Growing up with an engineer and illustrator father and an art critic and painter mother, Achkov developed a distinctive balance between technical thinking and artistic expression. His work has been presented three times at the Venice Design Biennale, while his monumental structures have earned recognition from tensegrity pioneer Kenneth Snelson.

Explore Creative Balkans: Contemporary Furniture Design to discover Konstantin Achkov alongside other designers shaping the region’s furniture design scene.

 “Good design is mutual compromise between mutually impossible elements.”

Name: Frame Armchair

Producer: Lock Furniture

Year of prodiction: 2014

Provided for the exhibition by: Lock Furniture

Dimensions: 56 X 52 X 81 сm

Frame draws inspiration from structural frameworks such as the Eiffel Tower, translating their strength and lightness into a chair. Its plywood components fit together like a puzzle, without glue, screws or nails. The exposed construction gives the chair its distinctive form.